John Hinderaker thinks he’s got a fool-proof way to get the country behind George W. Bush again, and deal with the Iranian threat at the same time!
So here is what you, President Bush, should do: take as a model the Cuban Missile Crisis. First John Kennedy, then Adlai Stevenson, laid before the world the evidence, in the form of aerial photographs, that the Soviet Union was installing nuclear arms in Cuba. The proof was taken as conclusive, and, consequently, the Kennedy administration’s actions enjoyed universal support at home, and widespread support abroad.
Do something similar here. Commandeer a half hour in prime time to tell the American people, and the world, that we have clear evidence of Iran’s involvement in killing American servicemen. Show the captured munitions. Explain exactly how they have contributed to American casualties. Display aerial photos of the training camps. No doubt there is much more evidence that can be presented or described.
You should say that Iran’s supplying of weapons in order to kill Americans is an act of war. In the dramatic finale of your speech, announce that thirty minutes earlier, American airplanes stationed in the Middle East took off, their destination, one of the munitions plants or training camps of which you have shown pictures. That training camp, you say, no longer exists. You say that if Iran does not immediately cease all support for, and fomenting of, violence in Iraq, we will continue to strike military targets inside Iran.
A forceful and dramatic conclusion. But that isn’t quite the end; instead, in the manner of Columbo or Steve Jobs, you add just one more thing: you declare that no nation that is engaged in killing American servicemen on the field of battle will be permitted to arm itself with nuclear weapons. Iran must either open all nuclear-related facilities to inspection by an international group headed by the U.S. (not the U.N.), immediately and for the foreseeable future, or those facilities, too, will be destroyed, along with the economic infrastructure that supports them.
If you do this, will the country back you? Not all of it. The liberals are too far gone. But half the country–your half–will, and maybe more. It is, after all, a little hard to explain why we should not respond to acts of war committed against us by a hostile nation that has vowed to destroy us.
Forgive me if I’m skeptical that the American people will again take at face-value the President going to the world and claiming “clear evidence” of a Middle Eastern threat that requires military action. They won’t. I don’t know how to put this gently–so I’ll just be blunt: Nobody–American people included–trusts the Bush administration anymore. The JFK analogy is particularly inapt, as a certain Massachusetts politician pointed out several years back:
In the dark days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy sent former Secretary of State Dean Acheson to Europe to build support. Acheson explained the situation to French President de Gaulle. Then he offered to show him highly classified satellite photos, as proof. De Gaulle waved the photos away, saying: “The word of the President of the United States is good enough for me.”
How many world leaders have that same trust in America’s president, today?
Regardless of whether you agree with it or not, the idea that the majority of American’s will swoon over this sort of “boldness” is beyond crazy. It’s not the fact that Hinderaker is delusional that bothers me (Lord knows that train has long since departed the station); it’s the fact that he thinks we’re delusional right along with him. America has war-fatigue. That’s true of liberals, and independents, and many conservatives too (Hinderaker’s fantasies that this is just a “liberal” view show how far gone from reality he really is). We’ve seen what happens when we entrust these people with our approval on these sorts of issues. For better or for worse, it will not line up in favor of another full-scale military conflict–especially with a regional powerhouse like Iran.
And if you really do think Iran is a threat that needs to responded to militarily, then the person to blame is the person who has completely discredited American military action in the Middle East for the next dozen years.